The present invention relates to the field of feeders for wildlife and, more particularly, to feeders for wild birds.
Bird feeders are typically supported on posts or suspended from overhead structures such as tree limbs and the like. Consequently, it is common practice to refill such feeders at the feeding site while they remain fully attached to their means of support. The alternative requires completely disassembling the feeder and the support.
The present invention contemplates a feeder in which a base unit remains permanently attached to its means of support at all times, while one or more individual feed-dispensing cartridges are quickly and easily removed from the base unit when empty, refilled with feed at a convenient location, and then quickly and easily reinstalled in the base unit.
In one preferred form, the base unit comprises an upright housing having a hollow interior that is bounded by a continuous, annular, outer wall. The outer wall has a pair of relatively large, horizontally spaced window openings that expose a pair of upright receiving sockets within the housing adapted to receive and support a corresponding pair of transparent, cylindrical seed-dispensing cartridges. With the cartridges installed within their sockets, the window openings afford a clear view of the cartridges so that the home owner or other user can readily ascertain the level of feed within each cartridge.
Each cartridge is securely supported within its receiving socket, yet is readily removable therefrom by simply lifting the cartridge a short distance until its closed bottom wall clears a short, upstanding retaining wall, whereupon the cartridge can be withdrawn through the window opening. Likewise, after refilling, the cartridge can be quickly and easily reinstalled by inserting the cartridge through the window opening and placing it into its secured position behind the short retaining wall.
Each cartridge is closed at the bottom and open at the top so that refilling is accomplished through the top of the cartridge. Outlet ports in the sidewall of the cartridge provide a means for dispensing the feed. In one embodiment, the outlet ports are provided with internal deflectors or flow inhibitors that prevent feed from escaping through the ports while allowing birds perched outside the ports to reach in through the ports and take feed with their beaks.
Another embodiment locates the port adjacent the bottom of the cartridge and provides a feeding tray below the port that is adapted to receive and collect feed gravitationally from the port. In its preferred form, all parts of the feeder are molded from a synthetic resinous material.